COLUMBUS, Ohio – As the mother of a Cleveland boy shot by a police officer made her plea for justice, hundreds of people marched to police headquarters in Columbus to call for justice for victims of police brutality.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that about 400 people marched peacefully from the Ohio State University campus to a park and then to police headquarters.
Demonstrators were protesting the chokehold death of an unarmed black man in New York City and the fatal shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. Grand juries decided that no criminal charges were warranted in both cases.
Police Chief Kim Jacobs says the city’s police department is one of a few large departments in the U.S. to be fully accredited. She says to maintain that designation the department must constantly review and study such things as avoiding racial profiling.
The mother of a 12-year-old boy shot by a Cleveland policeman says she wants him convicted for killing her son, who was carrying a pellet gun that police say looked real.
Tamir Rice was confronted Nov. 22 when officers responded to a 911 call about someone with a gun near a playground. Surveillance video shows him being shot within 2 seconds of a patrol car stopping nearby.
Samaria Rice said at a news conference Monday that a friend gave her son the airsoft gun, which shot nonlethal plastic pellets.
The family’s new attorneys say they want a transparent investigation. A grand jury will consider whether charges are merited.
Other attorneys have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city on behalf of Tamir’s family.
The city isn’t commenting on the lawsuit.